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The Depths
don't you know where you are? you're in a place with no sunlight, no love, no positive emotions you are in a dark, dark place, just where you belong where cats like us belong now do you know where you are? you're in the Depths It's weird, being in the Depths. You wouldn't understand though, would you. I'll explain it to you in a moment. Or maybe you'll get to experience it yourself. Have you even gotten your verdict? No? Well you'll see after you get your verdict. You better hope it's just a merciful death. Or maybe you won't get put in the Depths. Hm? You're right, we shouldn't be talking. I'm not even sure why I can talk to you. Surely once you're in the Depths you can't communicate to others? I don't know. I don't really care either. I just want to escape from this madness. Anyways, it's time I got back to the work. I wish you the best of luck, because I think you'll need it. Chapter One "Tate, it's time to move!" Karr yowls at me, "If you don't move you'll drown!" I'm almost tempted to tell him that I want to drown in the Depths. But I also know dying here is never a good thing. I remember when Marie was accidentally left behind when a raging inferno engulfed our camp. Her body was practically transperant and then she disappeared entirely. I don't think she actually died though. But none of us are brave enough to test our theory though, and I'm no different. "Tate!" Karr repeats, "Hurry up!" I jump onto the ledge and start climbing the cliff side. This is another one of those huge floods that would swallow everything in it's path. And when the floodwater finally receded, everything will change. Any cat who drowns in the water will disappear entirely. That's not really a fate I want. "I thought you weren't going to make it," Karr pants when I reach his side and we run away from the cliffside, "You weren't considering...were you?" "Of course not," I mew smoothly, "I was just examining the water that's all. I want to figure out the Depths. I want to get out." Karr sighs. "I know, but we haven't found anything by risking our lives each time a disaster comes in. Let's face it, Tate, we're stuck in here forever." "I won't accept that," I snarl, "There has to be a reason why this place only produces disasters. Plus, why can't we remember anything of our past lives? I want to know. I only remember our sentencing. That's all. Someone's amiss and I know there's a way out." "No there isn't," a small quiet tom mews glumly, "that's what the Lord said, remember? 'For your crimes, you are hereby banished for all eternity into the Depths'." "Jarek, if you don't stop thinking so negatively, I'll kick you into the waters next time." I snap, "Or I'll just leave you here when I find a way out of these stupid Depths." Jarek glares at me. "It's true though!" Karr pushes me back. "Tate, we need to hunt. The rest of them are waiting up ahead. We can't afford to disappoint them. Their lives depend on us." I sigh and roughly shove Jarek along the path. "Go tell the others to get some rest. Karr and I will hunt." The black tom hurries away and I turn to Karr. "Sarafina said that she talked to a cat yesterday. One that wasn't in the Depths." "What?" Karr's eyes widen, "How?" "I don't know," I shrug as we trudge along one of the familiar hunting paths, "She was dreaming I think. But the cat was real and she somehow remembered the cavern that holds all the condemned prisoners. You know how she is though. She possess great mental powers." The silver tom frowns. "What do you think about this then?" "I think it's another way out," I admit, "I also think we should figure out what happened to Marie. Maybe I should actually let one of the disasters swallow me this time." "No!" Karr exclaims, "I won't let you do that, Tate. I'd rather sacrifice myself than let you die." "I don't care about living or dying," I hiss, "I want to get out." Karr closes his eyes. "I'm going to regret saying this...but if you hate Jarek so much, why don't you use him? After all, he's no real use to our group. All he does is devour all our prey so that the rest of us starve." I jerk away from Karr and stare at him. "That's cruelty, Karr! Yeah, I don't care about Jarek but I won't just sacrifice him because I was too wimpy to jump in myself. If he doesn't want to die, I won't make him die. That's such a sick thought." Karr doesn't respond. "Would you really jump in to save us?" "No," I don't even hesitate to say this, "I'd do it to save myself." The silver tom tenses. "After all we've been through together, you'd still not lift a claw to help any of us?" Karr meets my gaze, "Is that really your choice?" I stare evenly back at him. "We're working together to save ourselves, not to save each other for no reason. This is survival, Karr. I'd care less what happened to the rest of you but I'll team up with others to save my own pelt." Karr tightens his lips. "I never knew you'd be so selfish, Tate." "Would you come back for me?" "Of course!" I shake my head. "I'm sorry, Karr, but I'm not that type of she-cat. We're still in this by ourselves. After all, we did something to put us in here didn't we? 'Crimes' the Lord said. We're probably all criminals anyways. Maybe that's why I don't care about you guys." Karr looks miffed. "You don't have to be yourself here, Tate. We're in the Depths for stars' sake. Nothing is normal." I know he's right. "Whatever," I mutter, "Let's hunt." ~ When we polish off the last of our meal, I turn to the last two members of our group. "Paoli and Navi you two scout the area for dangers and then remain as guards for the night. The rest of us will get some rest. Half way through the night, wait up the Jarek and Sarafina of us for our shift." The two siblings dip their heads. I envy them sometimes. While the rest of us only hold onto pieces of ourselves that we can remember, they have each other to hold onto. Jarek looks sullen about having a shift while Sarafina shoots him a dangerous look. I ignore the black tom and curl up to sleep while Paoli and Navi head out. Before I know it, Sarafina is waking me back up. "Tate, it's morning. We must abandon camp and move on before the disaster follows up." I haul myself out of my makeshift nest. "Who's going to be the carrier today?" I ask as I emerge outside, hauling out my nest. We have to keep most of our belongings with us because it's hard to scavenge anything around here. "I will," Jarek volunteers. I'm surprised the conceited small tom would do anything for the rest of us but I nod and pass him the nests and the extra prey. Navi and Paoli are still watching the horizon. "There's been ash in the air," Navi tells me, "I think there's a fire behind us somewhere." Paoli nods, "I agree. By the scent on the wind, I think it's heading straight at us." Karr narrows his eyes. "The best thing to do is to avoid it's path rather than run away from it." He suggests, "This way we won't actually be affected by the fire." "Good idea," I give Karr a terse nod, "Gather your things and let's go." Little did I know that after today, things would start to be very '' different. Chapter Two The fire roars and hisses as it swallows the earth that lays ahead of it. We've managed to steer clear of it and now we're settled on top of yet another cliff. If necessary, we could clamber down the cliffside to protect ourselves. "Tate!" Sarafina screams, "The water's rising!" "What?" I turn to stare down at where the "ocean" was. "There's never two disasters happening at the same time." But the brown tabby she-cat was right. The water was rising rather rapidly. "Karr!" I shout at the silver tom who is watching the fire intently, "We have to move." He turns. "Why?" "The water's rising," I mew grimly, "If we stay here we'll get caught by the floods instead." Karr looks sick. "Two disasters?" he shudders, "What is going on?" "The tornado is coming!" Navi shrieks, "What do we do now?" "Three?" Sarafina cowers behind me, "Tate, what do we do?" Before I can respond, Karr growls grimly. "The ground is splitting on our right. There's a tornado in front of us. There's a flood behind us, and there's a fire to our left. We're completely surrounded." "Maybe this is the end," I whisper as I crouch low, "Something big is going to happen." Paoli sinks her claws into the dirt. "Nevermind what's going to happen. We need to worry about how we're going to survive this!" "Maybe we aren't meant to survive this," Jarek's eyes are wide with fear, "After all, there's no way out! Our end has come! The Depths is finally going to kill us after seven moons of surviving here." "Don't say that!" I snap, "If we wait long enough for the fire to pass, we can escape." "New Lands are never safe to run across," Karr frowns. I roll my eyes. "Who cares about that? It's the only way out." Jarek shoves all the equipment onto my back. "I'm not going," he mews shakily, "I'm going to stay here." He won't meet my gaze. "I don't want to try to survive here anymore. It's too hard! I'd rather face my end right now since we're all going to die anyways." Karr opens his mouth to argue but I turn away. "Fine, be a wimp and stay." The silver tom reaches my side. "You're going to let him die?" "Why not?" I mew bluntly, "It's one less cat to care for." I know Jarek can hear me but the black tom ignores us. Navi is talking to him but the tom won't budge. Sarafina is holding back tears and Paoli scans the fireline. "It's going to be a tight squeeze," she breathes out, "Hopefully we can make it." "On my command, just run straight at the fire." I growl, "Don't hesitate or you'll either be thrown into the tornado or swallowed by the murky waters." I heft up our equipment and concentrate. I ignore all the dangers around us that is slowly advancing. "Run!" I scream as I hurl myself forward. I am the first one to reach the New Lands. The ground burns my pads and I grit my teeth as I hurtle through all the debris. The fire just barely singes my whiskers but I'm safe. I reach Old Lands again and I sigh in relief. The others collapse next to me. I turn around to look just as Jarek is swallowed by the waters. His body shimmers just like Marie's did and he seems to be frozen there. Slowly, he fades and then the waters close up and we can't see him anymore. "The waters didn't even fully take him," Karr mews, "He disappeared because the floods touched him." I nod to show that I heard. I had to figure this out. "There has to be a way out of this mad place," I murmur, "The disasters might be the way out but I don't know what will happen to Jarek now that he's gone from the Depths. What if he's free now?" "Do you think he'll come back for us?" Sarafina asks quietly. I laugh sharply. "That's one thing I know for sure," I snort, "Even if he's alive and well, he will ''never return for us." "I don't think he's safe," Karr murmurs in my ear, "There's no way it would be that easy to escape the Depths completely. We did something wrong to be sentenced here, and a 'death' wouldn't be the the way to escape our prison." "Our best bet is just to keep surviving," I agree, "Hopefully we can figure a way out after that." "What about the tom I spoke to?" Sarafina asks quietly, "Maybe if he joins us in the Depths, we can ask if he has seen where Marie and Jarek went." "Do you think he'll be sent down here?" I ask, "I mean nobody has come down here since we were sent here. And we all woke up together in the same area." Navi looks lost for once. "What can we do now? What if Jarek is right though? Is there any point in us surviving down here in the Depths?" "There has to be a reason why we weren't all forced to die when the four disasters happened," I flick my tail, "Either the Lord is testing us, or the Depths is falling apart. Perhaps his devilish prison is finally dying." "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Paoli asks nervously, "What if the Depths completely collaspes and traps un in here?" Her words make me quiver a little bit. I shake off my doubts. "We can't keep second guessing ourselves. You have to make a choice right now. Do you want to keep going or do you really want to give up and let the disasters take you?" My words hush them. Even Karr seems to be considering. "What's your choice?" Karr asks suddenly, "Surely you know what you want to do?" "I'm going to keep going," I mew grimly, "I'm not going to give up because all the disasters happened at the same time. I'm not giving up until I'm free." "I'm staying then too," Karr stands to walk over to me." Sarafina quietly joins me. Navi and Paoli stare at each other. Paoli hesitantly stays where she us while Navi slowly makes his way towards me. "Paoli?" he whispers, "Why are you still standing there?" His sister closes her eyes. For a moment, I think Paoli is going to give up. The strong-willed she-cat must have finally broke. But when she opens her eyes, she moves to join our side. Navi lets out a relieved sigh and he touches noses with his sister. "I'm glad you didn't give up," he whispers in her ear, "I would never have left you behind." Paoli smiles faintly, but she still looks sick. I don't know if she'll have the courage to move on after the today. "Let's get some rest," I suggest, "We've had a long day. We wouldn't want to lose too much energy, right? There's enough prey for us to share, so we don't need to risk our lives at the New Lands trying to hunt. I doubt there's prey there yet anyways." The three younger cats nod. They curl up in the nests that I lay down for them. Karr sighs as he watches them sleep. "What do you think about today?" I glance over at him as I start on my piece of the hawk. "I think it means something big is going to happen," I admit, "A change perhaps. Either we caused it or the Lord is trying to test us. I don't know how much longer we have to survive here in our prison, but I will do it." Karr purrs as he curls his tail around me. "I'll do it with you, Tate." I give him a small smile. Tomorrow will just be like another day. That's what I tell myself. Except it won't. Chapter Three Category:Fanfictions Category:Firey's Fanfics